Amazonian tribe use Google Earth to battle illegal logging

An Amazonian tribe is using geo-tagging in Google Earth to highlight ongoing illegal logging in
Brazil.

The Surui, located in Brazil's Rondônia state, sought out
training from the search engine giant after 32-year-old tribal
leader Almir Surui came across the 3D mapping system in 2007. As
part of its Outreach
programme, Google Earth spent the next five years training the
tribe and announced the finished product, a "cultural map" of the
tribe's history, at a forum on sustainable development held during
the UN Rio+20 conference,
16 June.

"Since the Surui and other indigenous people were given training
tools by Google, our land has received more visibility," chief
Almir told the San Francisco Chronicle. "All the information is shedding
light on the invasion of our land ... and giving our people the
responsibility for their own future."

The Surui first came into contact with the outside world in the
late 1960s, after which nearly 90 percent of its population was
wiped out by disease. It's particularly impressive then, that on
seeing the technology chief Almir went straight to Google in the US
to present his vision for the tribe's online presence.

"When you fly to the Surui territory in Google Earth, it's very
dramatic," says Rebecca Moore, Google Earth Outreach leader, in the
short film Trading Bows and Arrows with Laptops: Carbon and
Culture. "You can see that it's a beautiful virgin green
forest, but it's surrounded by complete deforestation… [Almir]
asked would we help him put his people on the map and use this to
strengthen his people and tell the world what was
happening."

Training began in 2008, and the short film shows girls as young
as ten taking part in classes. The Surui were taught how to manage
the software and drew up a 2D map of local historical sites and
indigenous animals that would become the final Google Earth
cultural map. In 2009 the tribe was supplied with Android devices so
individuals could capture GPS-located instances of illegal logging
and load these to the mapping system.

"We are reporting on them," says Almir. "We are doing our part
and risking our lives in order to conserve the environment."

The Surui also use Open Data Kit in Android to monitor
their forest's borders and biodiversity, and has used data gathered
from the technology to setup the first internationally validated
carbon project in the Amazon .

Recent satellite
imaging has shown deforestation is slowing in the Amazon -- in 2011 6,418 sq km was wiped out, compared with
14,286 sq km in 2006. Regardless, the figures remain alarmingly
high, and project's such as these will only serve to highlight the
issue across the globe. Google's final 3D representation of
the Surui territory has been planted with 90 million virtual trees,
representing the vastness of this important land.

"It's a huge responsibility to deal with technology which is so
different from our own culture," says Almir. "But it's not
impossible… We are struggling and believing together in a mechanism
for us to communicate and create a dialogue with the world through
the use of technology."

As well as recording illegal logging activities and monitoring
the carbon data in their territory, the Surui are using their new
skills to record and pass on knowledge gained from the tribe's
elders.

Moore suggested the technology could now be used to help
indigenous people in other parts of the world, adding that two
neighbouring tribes are already receiving training and that
requests have come in from indiginous groups in Canada and New
Zealand.